LePera Seat and Plans

So I've kind of been in a holding pattern waiting for the funds to buy the seat I wanted for my scooter. I decided I was sick of waiting and sold some stuff on eBay that I had just sitting around collecting dust and raised the cash in just a few days

New seat is the LePera Bare Bones model LN-002. No biker gel. Low, thin and mean looking.

Plans now are to rig up this rear fender (in bobbed fashion) along with bending a custom sissy bar out of some stainless steel rod that I bought a while back from these guys.

The fender will be attached to the swingarm under the oil tank and then via the sissy bar too which'll mount to welded on tabs on the swingarm near the rear axle. That'll let the fender move up and down with the swingarm and rear wheel, independent of the frame, so I can drop the fender real low and close to the tire (the look that I'm shooting for).

After that I'll need to figure out taillight and license plate mounting.

Cross that bridge when I come to it, though.

Wiring, paint and a new headlight

With the arrival of warmer weather came motivation to tear into my shovel. She's apart right now in preparation to get new wiring, some paint and a brand new headlight.

Some of the previous owners wiring was frightening. Mostly crimped connections, some of which were failing, lots of splices and electrical tape. The new wiring will include all soldered connections secured and sealed with heat-shrink tubing.

While I'm into the wiring I'll be dumping all controls from the bars including the turn signals, cutoff switch (never worked anyway), horn and hi/low. I might mount a switch on the new headlight for the hi beam.

I never liked the Low Rider 'eyebrow' style headlight; it reminds me of a dirt bike. So, lighting the way is a new, halogen 6.5'' Wide Glide-style headlight with the bottom, bates-style mount. A nice new drill bit and my trusty 18v Dewalt made short work of the lower tree and cover. I replaced the bolt that came with the headlight and opted for a allen head one because of the narrow space in which it seats from under the lower tree (woulda been hard to get a socket on a normal bolt).

I'm doing some painting while everything is apart, too. Front and rear fender are getting gloss black, cam cone and oil pump are getting either flat or wrinkle black.

Got some other odds and ends, too. I'll post pics once it's all back together.

A long, cold winter.

It's been a long, cold winter here in northern Indiana and I've done no work on the Shovel. Lately, though, the sun has peeking it's head out between the clouds and it occasionally happens long enough that some of the snow melts away and you can see green grass and black pavement. On those days, I daydream about tooling around town and wrenching in the garage.

I think I'll Netflix Easy Rider this weekend. I've never seen it, but it looks like it'll be good motivation and a nice distraction from these last weeks of winter we have left.

I've heard that the weather allows for some riding in March.

I'm looking forward to it.